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Press Release
The heads of the two companies signed a MOU for establishing a joint venture company in Beijing.
The establishment of the joint venture company for launching a wireless Internet business will be completed by the end of this year.
Now Korean wireless Internet carriers can advance into the Chinese market with their systems and equipment.
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On the 3rd of July 2002, SK Telecom (www.sktelecom.com) announced that Moon Soo Pyo, president of SK Telecom, and Wang Jian Zhou, president of China Unicom (www.chinaunicom.com.cn) agreed to establish a joint venture company (JV company) for launching a wireless Internet business in China. The MOU was signed in the International Hotel of Beijing.
The MOU includes the successful commercialization of China Unicom’s wireless Internet service as a stable service based on the strategic alliance with SK Telecom. This will lead to standardization of a wireless Internet, and establishment of a JV company to cooperatively implement varied new businesses.
This agreement has great significance because it is the first case of advancing into the Chinese telecommunication market by establishing a JV company between foreign and Chinese mobile phone companies. The MOU is not designed to provide consulting service or wireless content, but to cooperatively launch an overall wireless Internet business. In addition, this agreement will contribute toward advancing into the Chinese market by domestic wireless Internet carriers such as CPs (Content Providers) and solution developers which have excellent technological expertise. Through this JV company, the two companies will cooperatively establish and maintain wireless platforms, set its specifications and standardization, develop varied services models, supply content, implement consulting services, training, wireless Internet service operation, and other new services.
In order to prepare for the launch of specific business efforts, the two companies plan to organize a task force team that consists of a JV Company Establishment Group, a Service Planning Group, and a Platform Development Group, by next week. Through this team, they will determine the business scope, investment plan, and wireless Internet service specification and service schedule by October of this year. This will enable completion of the establishment of a wireless Internet JV company by the end of the year.
The members of China Unicom including chairman visited Japan and Korea in April 2002 to select their business partner. After analyzing the current status of the two countries’ wireless Internet services, they finally decided on SK Telecom as their business partner. This suggests that the level of SK Telecom’s wireless Internet service is the world’s best.
"Based on the comprehensive cooperative relationship and reliability that SK Telecom has maintained with China Unicom for a long time, the company will start a full-fledged business in the Chinese market. "This wireless Internet business will lay the groundwork for establishing a cooperative system in Northeast Asia that will secure global leadership in the world’s wireless Internet market"
said Moon Soo Pyo, president of SK Telecom.
On the other hand, Wang Jian Zhou, chairman of China Unicom, commented "Through this agreement, China Unicom will launch wireless Internet service by the end of this month, further expand the construction of CDMA networks, and also build CDMA 2000 1X systems. In so doing, the company will strengthen its leadership in the Chinese telecommunication market".
SK Telecom and China Unicom have steadily enhanced their cooperative ties, starting with the first meeting of the two heads of the companies in June 1999 in Beijing. Then, both companies concluded a comprehensive cooperation agreement on technology and management in February 2000, and reached a CDMA cooperation agreement in March 2001. Furthermore, they signed a contract for CDMA network engineering consulting in July 2001.
Beginning with the Mongolian market in May 1999, SK Telecom has steadily advanced into overseas mobile communication markets including Daghestan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many other countries. At the same time, the company is actively seeking to go into other overseas wireless Internet markets by forming strategic alliances, or concluding business agreements with Pelefone of Israel, Sun Microsystems, Openwave, Hewlett Packard and VISA of the U.S., as well as TM cellular of Malaysia.
The MOU includes the successful commercialization of China Unicom’s wireless Internet service as a stable service based on the strategic alliance with SK Telecom. This will lead to standardization of a wireless Internet, and establishment of a JV company to cooperatively implement varied new businesses.
This agreement has great significance because it is the first case of advancing into the Chinese telecommunication market by establishing a JV company between foreign and Chinese mobile phone companies. The MOU is not designed to provide consulting service or wireless content, but to cooperatively launch an overall wireless Internet business. In addition, this agreement will contribute toward advancing into the Chinese market by domestic wireless Internet carriers such as CPs (Content Providers) and solution developers which have excellent technological expertise. Through this JV company, the two companies will cooperatively establish and maintain wireless platforms, set its specifications and standardization, develop varied services models, supply content, implement consulting services, training, wireless Internet service operation, and other new services.
In order to prepare for the launch of specific business efforts, the two companies plan to organize a task force team that consists of a JV Company Establishment Group, a Service Planning Group, and a Platform Development Group, by next week. Through this team, they will determine the business scope, investment plan, and wireless Internet service specification and service schedule by October of this year. This will enable completion of the establishment of a wireless Internet JV company by the end of the year.
The members of China Unicom including chairman visited Japan and Korea in April 2002 to select their business partner. After analyzing the current status of the two countries’ wireless Internet services, they finally decided on SK Telecom as their business partner. This suggests that the level of SK Telecom’s wireless Internet service is the world’s best.
"Based on the comprehensive cooperative relationship and reliability that SK Telecom has maintained with China Unicom for a long time, the company will start a full-fledged business in the Chinese market. "This wireless Internet business will lay the groundwork for establishing a cooperative system in Northeast Asia that will secure global leadership in the world’s wireless Internet market"
said Moon Soo Pyo, president of SK Telecom.
On the other hand, Wang Jian Zhou, chairman of China Unicom, commented "Through this agreement, China Unicom will launch wireless Internet service by the end of this month, further expand the construction of CDMA networks, and also build CDMA 2000 1X systems. In so doing, the company will strengthen its leadership in the Chinese telecommunication market".
SK Telecom and China Unicom have steadily enhanced their cooperative ties, starting with the first meeting of the two heads of the companies in June 1999 in Beijing. Then, both companies concluded a comprehensive cooperation agreement on technology and management in February 2000, and reached a CDMA cooperation agreement in March 2001. Furthermore, they signed a contract for CDMA network engineering consulting in July 2001.
Beginning with the Mongolian market in May 1999, SK Telecom has steadily advanced into overseas mobile communication markets including Daghestan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many other countries. At the same time, the company is actively seeking to go into other overseas wireless Internet markets by forming strategic alliances, or concluding business agreements with Pelefone of Israel, Sun Microsystems, Openwave, Hewlett Packard and VISA of the U.S., as well as TM cellular of Malaysia.